Front feed device



Oct. 10, 1950 w MOORE 2,525,266

FRONT FEED DEVICE Filed Dec. 18, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Z? M INVENTOR.

WALTL? A. M0095 3 Shee ts-Sheec 2 W. R. MOORE FRONT FEED DEVICE Oct. 10, 1950 I Filed Dec.

Oct. 10, 1950 w. R. MOORE FRONT FEED DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Dec. 18, 1948 INVENTOR. WALTER I). [W06 i ATM/MT) Patented Oct. 10, 1950 FRONT FEED DEVICE Walter R. Moore, Palmyra, N. .L, assignor to Underwood Corporation, New York, N. Y., a

corporation of Delaware Application December 18, 1948, Serial No. 66,013

2 Claims. I

The present invention relates to a manifolding device for facilitating the making of multiple copies upon a typewriting or other business machine, said device being also employable on a front feed device.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a device which, while economical to manufacture, is readily adaptable to bind together a varying number of sheets of carbon paper and which is readily insertable into an ordinary typewriter, accounting machine, etc.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive and easily operated device which may be employed as a front feed device for inserting either ordinary correspondence or legal stationery or snap-apart or other forms into a typewriter or other business machine.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a plurality of separateparts which may readily be connected together to form a binder for carbon papers or a front feeddevice.

These and other objects, features and advantages will become more readily apparent as the description of a preferred embodiment of the invention proceeds.

Referring now to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the backing sheet of a device made in accordance with the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a part of the device which is employed to secure sheets of carbon paper to the backing sheet and for other purposes,

Fig. 3 is a view showing a sheet of carbon paper in position upon the backing sheet preparatory to being attached to said backing sheet,

Fig. 4 is a view showing one manner, of assembling the two main parts of the device to secure the sheets of carbon paper therein,

Fig. 5 is a view showing aiurther step in the assembling operation, I

Fig. 6 is a view showing one manner ofattaching a stop bar to the device;

Fig. '7 is a plan view showing the device of the present invention and the carbon paper in as-' sembled condition, V

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken on the line 88 of Fig. 7,

Fig. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line 9-9 of Fig. '7,

Fig. 10 is a side view, partly in section, showing the device of the present invention and the carbon paper assembled therewith in position in a typewriter, and

Fig. 11 is a side view, partly in section, showing the manner in which the device of the present invention may be employed as a front feed device for snap-apart or other forms.

The device of this invention is comprised primarily of two parts. In Fig. 1, that part of the device which may best be referred to as a backing sheet is designated I0, and in Fig. 2, that part of the device which, for sake of convenience, will be referred to as the front flap is designated II. The backing sheet it! is provided with a plurality of straight elongated openings or slots I2 extending across the sheet in a direction parallel to the bottom edge thereof. In the particular embodiment shown, there arethree of these slots l2, but it is to be understood that a different number of slots may be employed without departing from the present invention; in fact, in some instances, one slot l2 may be sufiicient. In vertical alignment with each of the slots i2 is a second slot [3, the slots l3 being curved for a purpose which will later become apparent.

The backing sheet Hi is provided with two holes l4 located near each of its lower corners. The four holes M are located in horizontal alignment for a purpose to be presently explained. In practice, it has been found desirable to reinforce the lower corners of the backing sheet in an area adjacent the holes, and such reinforcing is indicated in Fig. 1 at I5.

The front flap H is cut to the general shape shown in Fig. 2 and is provided near each of its lower corners with a hole Hi for a purpose to be presently described. The flap I I is provided with a fold line H and with a plurality of tongues 18, there being a tongue i8 for each of the slots [2 of the backing sheet. The tongues H; are provided with rounded ends as shown in Fig. 2.

Adjacent the fold line IT, it is preferable to provide a cementing or glueing material l9 so that when the fiap i i is folded along the line H, it will stay folded ,to provide a rigid, clean fold along said line. It is desirable that .the upper portion of the flap be cemented to the lower portion of the flap for only a short distance from the fold line H. Of course, instead of by means of the cement, the two portions of the flap may be secured together by means of stitching or otherwise without departing from the spirit of th invention.

The carbon paper 2!! which-is to be used with the present device is provided with a plurality of slots 2i extending parallel to one end of the paper and located relatively near said end. When loading the device with carbon paper, the sheets of paper are placed upon the backing sheet in the manner shown'in Fig. 3 with the slots 2| in the paper extending parallel to the slots H2 in the backing sheet. The front flap ll may then be placed on top of the carbon paper in the manner shown in Fig. 4 with the tongues l8 on the folded-over portion of the flap pointing toward the top of the sheet. The tongues l8 may then be folded over toward the person making the assembly and extended downwardly, one at a time, through the slots 2| in the carbon paper and the slots l2 in the backing sheet. The next step in the assembling operation consists of turning over the flap ll so that the holes It in said flap are aligned with the outer two of the four holes HS in the backing sheet. The backing sheet together with the flap may then be twisted in the manner illustrated in Fig. 5, and the curved ends of the tongues l8 tucked into the curved slots l3 in the backing sheet, the curvature of the slots I3 facilitating this operation.

Any reasonable number of sheets of carbon paper may be thus assembled as a set by means of the device of the present invention. The carbon sheets, of course, may be, and preferably are, of varying degrees of weight or hardness so that all of the copies made will have substantially the same appearance.

Of course, there are other ways in which the tongues l8 may be interlaced with the slots l2 and I3. The two parts of the device are preferably made of rather heavy paper or of light cardboard, and they may be assembled by grasping the backing sheet with one hand near its lower edge and allowing the upper part to curve rearwardly to thereby cause the slots [2 of the backing sheet to open slightly. The front flap may then be manipulated in such manner that all of the tongues l8 may be passed through the slots 2 at the same time, and by a motion which moves the lower edge of the front flap ll toward the lower edge of the backing sheet, the tongues l8 may be made to pass through all of the slots I3 at approximately the same time. The particular method of assembling the device forms no part of the present invention, it be ng of the essence of the invention merely that after assembly, the parts are relatively interlocked as best seen in Figs. 7 and 8.

To insure that the device will remain in assembled condition, a flexible bar 22 may be employed. The bar 22 may conveniently be attached to the device by insert ng it, first, through one of the holes IS in the flap H and through the hole I 4 in the backing sheet aligned therewith, thence upwardly through the next hole I 4 and downwardly through the next hole l4 and finally up through the other pair of aligned holes l4 and 6. The bar 22 is provided with a pair of rounded buttons 23 which cooperate with the outer two holes 14 to hold the bar against longitudinal displacement, as may best be seen in Fig. 9. The buttons 23 serve the further function of acting as stop devices, as will presently appear.

In Figs. and 11, a typewriter platen is indicated at 24, and the usual paper table and feed rollers are designated 25 and 26, respectively. The assembly is fed into the typewriter in the same manner as an ordinary assembly of typing sheets with the upper edge of the backing sheet being inserted first. The present device, together with its carbons, if it is loaded with carbons, may then be rolled around the platen in the usual manner until the buttons 23 are wedged between the platen and the paper table, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, after which it may be moved no farther in that direction. Instead of rolling the assembly to its extreme position, it may be rolled around the platen only far enough to allow the operator to grasp the leading edge; the feed rollers may then be cast off by depression of an appropriate lever, and the operator may pull the assembly through until the buttons 23 are wedged between the platen and the paper table.

From Figs. 6 and '7, it is apparent that the folded edge I! of the front flap H is not square with the side edges thereof and that the lefthand upper corner is somewhat higher than the right-hand upper corner. This is an important feature of the present invention, because this bias of the edge I 1 enables the front flap to move properly past the feed rollers 26. That is, the bias of the edge I! provides a leading corner which may be picked up by the feed rollers much more easily than could the whole length of said edge.

The herelnbefore mentioned glueing or cementing material l9 insures a fiat and stiff edge at the fold I! which makes the present device esecially easy to feed into the typewriter. The cementing will be ineffective, however, if the two portions of the flap II are stuck together over any appreciable distance from the fold line because then as the fiap part moves around the cylindrical platen, the outermost layer of the flap will tend to move relative to the innermost layer, and either the cement will give way or the portion of the fiap which is stuck together is apt to become wrinkled. It has been found that the cementing is most effective if it covers a distance of about one-eighth of an inch from the fold line [1.

As the device is rolled around the platen 24, the flap II will travel a longer path than the backing sheet Ill because of its greater distance from the axis of the platen, as will readily be understood. If the flap II and backing sheet Ill were made of a single piece or were firmly secured together adjacent the end carryin the bar 22, a fold would develop each time the device was put into the typewriter. The fold would be apt to cause the device to become jammed in the machine and in any case would result in a weakening of the device so that its useful life would be considerably shortened. However, in the present construction, the holes l4 and it are made enough larger than the bar 22 so that a slight relative movement may take place between the backing sheet l0 and the flap H as the device is put into the type riter, and, as a result, no fold will develop. Figs. 10 and 11 show the relative movement which takes place between the two parts of the device as it is put into the typewriter, it being observable in these two figures that the end of the backing sheet E0 is trailing the end of the flap I l.

After the assembly is positioned in the typewriter, as shown in Fig. 10, the carbon sheets are grasped by their upper or free edges and turned over toward the operator. The copy sheets are then positioned with their lower edges resting upon the exposed part of the tongues l8, the copy sheets being inter-leaved with the carbon sheets, as is well known. The platen is then rolled back until the original writing sheet is in position for typing the first line.

If a number of letters are to be written, all requiring the same number of carbon copies, the assembly may advantageously be left in the machine. Thus, it is only necessary for the operator to inter-leave the copy sheets with the carbon sheets at the beginning of each letter or each page, and it is not necessary to load the machine from the rear as is ordinarily the case. A great deal of time can be saved by using the present device as above described.

If a varying number of carbon copies are to be made, it is proposed that the typist have a number of these devices made up with the appropriate number of sheets of carbon paper in each one. In this manner, the appropriate carbon paper assembly may expeditiously be used for each letter typed, thus appreciably cutting down the time required to assemble the needed number of carbon sheets. The sheets being once assembled with the present device are left assembled until they have been used up.

The use of the present invention will result in a saving of carbon paper as well asa saving of time in that at the end of the day the device together with its carbon paper'will be put away for use at another time instead of the carbon paper being thrown into the waste basket before it is used up, as is too often the practice.

Fig. 11 shows how the present device may be employed as a front feed device. In this case, the device is not loaded with carbon paper, but is assembled in the same manner as above described. The device is positioned in the typewriter, as above described, and a form assembly, envelope, or other item to be front fed, is merely inserted between the upper edge I! of the front flap and the adjacent portion of the backing sheet It, as shown in Fig. 11. The tongues l8 serve as a bottom for the notch formed between the upper edge ll of the front flap on the backing sheet I0. As the backing sheet is rolled back around the platen to bring the form into position for typing the first line, the upper edge of the front flap is pressed by the feed rollers against the lower edge of the form assembly, envelope, etc. to hold the same in position.

Having thus described a preferred embodiment of my invention, what I claim is:

1. A front feed device for typewriters and other business machines comprising, a backing sheet having a pair of slots therethrough, a separate front flap member carrying a tongue, said tongue extending through both of the slots in the backing sheet, a plurality of aligned openings in the backing sheet and the front flap member, and a stop bar interlaced with the openings of the backing sheet and the front flap member.

2. A device of the character described, comprising a backing sheet having a pair of slots therethrough, a separate front flap member carrying a tongue, said tongue extending through both of the slots in the backing sheet, a fold line extending across said front flap member and dividing said member into a tongue carrying part and a substantially rectangular part, and means securing the two parts of the front flap member together for a short distance from said fold line.

WALTER R. MOORE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 742,445 Keep Oct. 27, 1903 1,049,602 Rodenhi Jan. 7, 1913 1,850,235 Kelley Mar. 22, 1932 2,432,363 Wrigley Dec. 9, 1947 

